OpenAI has released Deep Research, a groundbreaking new capability within ChatGPT that automates complex, multi-step research tasks. Designed to synthesize vast amounts of information from the internet, Deep Research delivers high-quality, well-documented reports that would typically take a human hours to compile—now achievable in just minutes.
What Is Deep Research?
Deep Research is an agentic AI feature built to tackle in-depth research problems. Unlike a standard AI chatbot that provides quick responses, Deep Research searches, interprets, and analyzes hundreds of online sources, adapting dynamically as it discovers new information. Powered by a specialized version of OpenAI’s upcoming o3 model, it can process and consolidate text, images, and PDFs to generate highly detailed and verifiable insights.
Whether it’s an analysis of financial trends, a scientific literature review, or a detailed comparison of products, Deep Research provides a level of depth that surpasses standard search queries.
Why OpenAI Built Deep Research
Deep Research is particularly useful for professionals and knowledge workers in industries such as finance, science, policy, and engineering, where precision and well-cited information are crucial. It also benefits everyday users who need detailed product comparisons, academic research, or business intelligence.
Unlike traditional search engines that require users to piece together scattered information manually, Deep Research delivers:
- Fully Cited Reports: Every claim includes a source, ensuring transparency and credibility.
- A Clear Summary of Its Reasoning: Users can see how the AI arrived at its conclusions.
- The Ability to Uncover Niche Insights: It finds and synthesizes non-obvious, hard-to-find information by exploring diverse sources.
By automating research-intensive tasks, Deep Research allows users to save time and make more informed decisions.
How It Works
Deep Research was trained using reinforcement learning on complex, real-world browsing and analytical tasks. It plans and executes a series of steps, reevaluating its strategy as new data emerges. Key capabilities include:
- Adaptive Research Strategies: It searches for relevant content, backtracks when necessary, and refines its approach based on new findings.
- Multi-Modal Analysis: It can analyze uploaded files, extract insights from graphs and images, and even generate its own visualizations using Python.
- Advanced Citation Capabilities: The AI provides sentence-level citations, making verification simple and reliable.
Performance Benchmarks
Deep Research has set new records on AI evaluation benchmarks:
- Humanity’s Last Exam – an expert-level test covering 100+ subjects (from rocket science to humanities). The model behind Deep Research scored 26.6% accuracy, significantly outperforming previous iterations.
- GAIA Benchmark – a test assessing real-world research and problem-solving skills. Deep Research achieved a new state-of-the-art score, demonstrating its ability to navigate complex multi-step reasoning tasks effectively.
How to Use Deep Research in ChatGPT
Getting started with Deep Research is simple:
- Select “Deep Research” Mode in the ChatGPT message composer.
- Enter Your Query – Whether it’s a market analysis, a technical report, or a personal research project, provide as much context as possible.
- Attach Files (Optional) – Upload spreadsheets, PDFs, or documents for deeper analysis.
- Let It Work – Deep Research will take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to complete its task, displaying a progress sidebar with a summary of steps taken and sources used.
- Receive a Comprehensive Report – The results are detailed, cited, and formatted for easy review. OpenAI will soon introduce data visualizations, embedded images, and improved analytics for even richer outputs.
Current Limitations & Future Improvements
While Deep Research represents a major leap forward, it isn’t perfect. Some current limitations include:
- Occasional factual errors or hallucinations, though at a significantly reduced rate compared to previous models.
- Difficulties in evaluating source credibility, particularly when faced with conflicting online information.
- Longer Processing Times – Some research tasks may take longer to start due to the complexity of multi-step reasoning.
OpenAI is actively working to enhance accuracy, reduce response times, and refine source evaluation. Additionally, a faster, more cost-effective version is in development for broader accessibility.
Who Can Access Deep Research?
Currently, Deep Research is available to ChatGPT Pro users, with Plus and Team users gaining access next. Due to the high compute requirements, OpenAI is rolling out this feature in phases, with future expansions planned for Enterprise users.
Looking Ahead
Deep Research is a significant step toward OpenAI’s vision of agentic AI—systems that can independently perform complex research and reasoning tasks. In the near future, OpenAI plans to integrate Deep Research with more specialized data sources (e.g., subscription-based research databases and enterprise knowledge hubs) to further enhance its capabilities.
As AI research assistants become more advanced, Deep Research represents the beginning of a new era in automated knowledge work. Whether you’re a professional researcher, a business strategist, or just someone seeking well-sourced, in-depth answers, Deep Research is poised to transform the way we gather and process information.